Aerovias Guest S.A. was founded by an American, based in Mexico and had no domestic operations! Not exactly a formula for long-term success. Aerovias Guest S.A. was formed by Winston Guest, along with Mexican private interests in 1946. The company started a Mexico City-Madrid route, with stops at Miami (no traffic rights held there until 1950), Bermuda, the Azores and Lisbon. The route was initially flown with war surplus C-54B's, which eventually would number (11) A/C. Aerovias Guest took a bold step, when it placed an order for (3) of the new Lockheed L-749A's. The 1st (XA-GOQ- the 1st L-749 built!) was delivered on January 8, 1948 and placed on the Mexico City-Madrid route in July. Unfortunately, the Madrid route was not as successful, plus the hoped for New York rights were denied (U.S.-Mexico bilateral agreement approved in 1957 w/Aeronaves de Mexico gaining the rights!). After only 4-months in service, the 1st 749A was "traded back" to Lockheed and the other (2) were never delivered. Though the airline did not have New York rights, a N.Y-Mexico service was flown by DC-4's (C-54B) with Eastern and National flights connecting at Miami.
Aerovias Guest was desperate to add another U.S. city and reached an agreement with the Canadian Government for a Mexico City-Windsor (Ontario) route in 1955, which brought them next door to Detroit! Also in 1955, (2) ex-Qantas 749A's were acquired and these were used on the new route.(unfortunately could not find a 749A photo in 1955 Guest markings) The Windsor (Detroit) route proved to be a money loser and was ended in 1957 and the (2) Constellations were used on flights to Panama and later Caracas. By 1958, the Aerovias Guest S.A. fleet consisted of (1) DC-4, (2) L-749's and (2) C-82 Packets. In 1959, SAS bought a controlling interest in Guest and (3) ex-SAS DC-6's were brought in. The airline now changed it's name to Guest Aerovias Mexico S.A. and purchased (3) ex-Thai Super "G"s that had been purchased in 1957, thru a U.S. ICA $2 million grant. The A/C sat for 3 years and were never used by the financially troubled carrier (upcoming "LS"). The L-1049G's were only used between 1960-61 until being leased out.
In 1959, a new logo and colors were introduced with Blue (SAS influence?) becoming the Guest color. The last C-54B (DC-4) would be painted in the new scheme, though being withdrawn soon afterwords.
In 1959, the (3) DC-6's reopened the Mexico City-Madrid route via Miami, Bermuda, Santa Maria (Azores) and Lisbon, with the addition of Paris as the European terminal. In 1961, Guest Aerovias Mexico S.A. was re-organized and it's 3rd logo was introduced. With the jet age arrival, the airline signed a "Dry-lease" contract with Mexicana to lease (2) Comet 4's. The main photo show an illustration of the proposed Guest Comet 4. And the company published advertisements for the new service. It appears that because of the airline's financial situation (SAS divested itself from Guest in 1961), the closest that Guest Comet 4's came was (1) dual-titled Mexicana Comet 4, that was photographed in 1961. It would be Aeronaves de Mexico that merged with Guest Aerovias and took over the Miami-Lisban-Madrid routes. Winston Guest's gamble ultimately failed and became a footnote in Aviation History..........John3 (Thanks to aussieairliners.org, Flightinternational.com, www.oy-reg.dk/register, www.edcoatescollection.com, airlinecolors.com, airlinetimetableimages.com, Airliners.net. Photographers: Frank Hudson, Eric Holm & Brian Doherty).